My son will face nontraditional missions in messy places that will make Somalia, Afghanistan, and Iraq look like a picnic. He will see a changed battlefield, with an accelerated tempo and greatly expanded knowledge base. He will witness a great drop in the sense of calling. People entering the military will not be imprinted with his code. On his watch, my son is likely to see a weapons of mass destruction event. Another and worse 9/11 will occur in some city, somewhere in the world where Americans are gathered. When that nasty bug or gas or nuke is released, it will forever change him and his institutions. At that point, all the lip service paid to dealing with such an eventuality will be revealed for what it is—lip service. And he will have to deal with it for real. In its wake, I hope he gets to deal with yet another—and better—Goldwater-Nichols arrangement.

What will we expect of him as a battlefield commander? Brains, guts, and determination—nothing new here. But we would ask for more than battlefield skill from our future commanders. We want character, sense of moral responsibility, and an ethical standard that rises above those of all other professions. We want him to be a model who accepts the profession of arms as a calling. We want him to take care of our sons and daughters and treat their lives as precious—putting them in harm’s way only if it truly counts. We’ll expect him to stand up to civilian leadership before thinking of his own career.

And I hope that we would think enough of him and his compatriots to show some respect for them along the way.

I have been all over this globe and exposed to most of the cultures on it. I am fascinated by them. I love the diversity. I want to understand them and embrace them. I could never understand prejudice or rejection or the sense of superiority that drive the hatemongers of the world. I lived through a tumultuous period of our history when our own minorities broke from second-class citizenship into full participation in this wonderful dream we call America. I have been proud of their accomplishments and contributions. They have proven the bigots wrong and made our nation greater. I hope the dream we have struggled to realize can be extended to the rest of the planet.

Acknowledgements

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Working on this book has been a long, hard process. Thanks to the friendship, encouragement, patience, prodding, creativity, and skillful contributions of Tom Clancy, Tony Koltz, Neil Nyren, Marty Greenberg, and Fred Williams, this project was made possible.

—Tony Zinni

INDEX

INDEX

Abdullah, King (Jordan)

Abdullah, Crown Prince (Saudi Arabia)

Abdullah, Zaini, Dr.

Abramowitz, Mort

Aceh-Indonesia conflict

Addis Ababa

AD Skyraider aircraft

Advanced Operating Base

Afghanistan

Africa . See also Somalia

African Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS)

African Crisis Response Initiatives (ACRI)

Aideed, Mohammed Farrah

Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS)

Air campaign

Air Power Doctrine